QUOTATION: Holy Thoughts

Every holy thought is the gift of God, the inspiration of God, the grace of God.

--St. Ambrose, Concerning Cain, 1:45.

QUOTATION: Pious Books

Endeavor to have always in your hand a pious book, that with this shield you may defend yourself against bad thoughts.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Evil Thoughts

Just as you cannot stop air from coming into your chest, you cannot stop evil thoughts from coming into your mind. Your part is to resist them.

--St. Poemen

QUOTATION: Shun Bad Thoughts

Be not of those loitering, misty, muddy minds that want to see how far their evil thoughts will carry them, that want to analyze them, that pause only when the case becomes grave, and that rouse them- selves only after being wounded. Refined souls perceive the evil at its first appearance. When a thought goes so far as to creep into your mind, you are already conquered. Some want to know how it will turn out, they want to enjoy it just a little. The whole of it? Oh, no, but only the least bit of it, like one who would not dishonor herself, but who would allow herself to be flattered, who would like to know how far she is loved, — she is already lost!

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Dealing with Bad Thoughts

Do not argue with perverse thoughts or evil desires, but when they attack you, occupy your mind vigorously with some profitable meditation and plan until they vanish away. No thought or intention is ever expelled from the heart except by some other thought or intention incompatible with it.

--St. Anselm of Canterbury

QUOTATION: Bad Thoughts

Do not be disturbed about bad thoughts; it is one thing to have them and quite another to consent to them.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Thoughts

Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be.

-- St. Thomas More